CIM WEEK 17 of 18: Deep Breathes

Man, I do NOT understand people who talk about the "taper crazies." I love taper. I'm great at it. I don't even see why I have to run as much during taper as I do. I still had a couple of workouts this week, but outside of that, put my feet up, you say? Get lots of extra sleep, you say? Eat plenty of carbs, you say?

Done, done, and done.

I always worry that I'm not tapering enough or my taper is too short & then panic when 3-4 days into the taper I don't feel peppy & rested. My philosophy has always been better over-tapered than under-tapered, but then recently I've read a bunch of articles from coaches who say they more often see recreational runners make the mistake of tapering too much than not enough, so I'm trying to just follow the plan & not panic too much. (Then again, the plan did not take into consideration spending week 17 at altitude, so there's also that.)

It wasn't that cold (upper 30s/low 40s), but it was a LOT colder than I'm used to!

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Grand Total:

42.6 miles

* 35 easy
* 5.6 threshold
* 2 race pace

Monday 11/21: Karate

Tuesday 11/22: Fly to Spokane/rest

On Tuesday we flew to Spokane, Washington to spend the week with Don's parents. I didn't even bother trying to do my track workout before our flight since it was at 10am and I would have had to get up at like 4am. In fact don't think the track even opens until 7.

Wednesday 11/23: 2 warm up, 2 @ marathon pace, 6 easy

On the schedule, my Tuesday speed workout was 2 warm up, 6 x 200m/200m, 2 @ marathon pace, 6 x 200m/200m, 2 cool down. Alas, running on hilly country roads mostly without sidewalks, the 200m's were rather impractical. I thought instead I'd try some short marathon pace intervals, but WOW, the altitude was wreaking complete havoc on my heart rate! Not wanting to push things too hard with only 12 days to go, I decided to run the rest of the distance "easy" & let the altitude do its work without any extra effort from me. 700 ft of elevation gain seemed quite enough to be getting on with.

It's what you'd call a "curvy" landscape.

Thursday 11/24: 6 easy

Definitely still acclimating. I did that unfortunate thing on this run where you convince yourself that it's basically nothing & then as a result it feels super hard and waaaaay longer than it is.

On the plus side: Turkey.

Friday 11/25: 2 warm-up, 4 x 2K @ HM pace, 2 cool down = 5.6 threshold/9.6 total

(I did these as 1.25 miles since that's easier for my watch to autolap than 1.24 miles.) I really had no idea if I would be able to pull off this workout given the altitude, but I figured I'd just put the effort in & see what pace I could manage. It was hard, but not harder than I expected. The target time was 9:35, & I managed the intervals in 9:39, 9:33, 9:38, & 9:20 (so 7:44, 7:38, 7:43, & 7:29 pace-wise).

Also ran into a deer family visiting when I got back!

Saturday 11/19: 5 easy

On Saturday we all drove down to a nice, flat, pretty bike path by the train tracks. I ran 1 mile out and back along one trail head while Don & his folks walked 1.6 miles out and back along a second one. After I finished my two miles out-and-back, I did the same on their trail to make it 5 miles total, and we all walked maybe the last third of a mile or so together back to the car.

Sunday 11/20: 12 easy

I'll admit to going into this run with a bit of a grumpy attitude. It was cold and windy and part of me felt kind of annoyed at having to run double digits just a week before a marathon. Those Spokane hills were starting to get to me, too--I didn't really mean to run nearly 1000' of elevation gain but apparently that's what happened.

It's always nice to knock out that last double digit run before a marathon. Just one more short track workout, an easy three on Thursday, & a two-mile shakeout on marathon eve!

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CIM 2016 Week 1 of 18 - It's On

CIM 2016 Week 2 of 18 - Escape From NY (Barely)

CIM 2016 Week 3 of 18 - A Discount Code to Share (+ back on Strava!)

CIM 2016 Week 4 of 18 - 18/day, 47.5/week, 205.5/month.

CIM 2016 Week 5 of 18 - That cutback feeling

CIM 2016 Week 6 of 18 - french toast, trail shoes, & a little race fatigue

CIM 2016 Week 7 of 18 - Big week & feelin' fine!

CIM 2016 Week 8 of 18 - Knee Troubles :(

CIM 2016 Week 9 of 18 - Improvement on the knee front!

CIM 2016 Week 10 of 18 - Train kept a-rollin' (+ free shoes!)

CIM 2016 Week 11 of 18 - Texas Half Marathon #1 (+ my sister's wedding!)

CIM 2016 Week 12 of 18 - Race Week Cutback, blah dee blah dee blah...

CIM 2016 Week 13 of 18 - One More Block....

CIM 2016 Week 14 of 18 - Fun mileage facts & some HR wonkiness.

CIM 2016 Week 15 of 18 - Hang in there.

CIM 2016 Week 16 of 18 - Opioids, speed work, & a soggy weekend